Random Mine of the Week (perhaps the last?) : Wheal Zion

Was it really 2015 when I began taking snaps of Random Mines of the Day/Week? Apparently it was.  I came across a random mine I'm sure I've never seen before today though, and it was a really good one, with two chimneys and a spoil heap and a view down the valley with atmospherically cawing rooks.  There are apparently two shafts, as well as the chimneys, though I couldn't see those from the road.


Despite all the chimneys, shafts etc, this seems to have been a remarkably shortlived copper mine. Heritage Gateway says that it was in operation from 1849 to 1858 and idle in 1865.Remarkable to build two great chimneys like that and for them to be still standing so long after, yet the mine itself was only running for nine years.


It looks good in Google Street View too, since the Street View camera has caught it at the height of bluebell season.